Personal water sports boards are floating boards upon which a rider travels on the water. The typical personal water sports board is not self-propelled. Rather, a rider positions themselves on top of the board and usually maneuvers the personal water sports board through a flow of water.
One known type of personal water sports board is commonly referred to as a “boogie board.” Riders position themselves face down on top of the boogie board so that their torso rests on the board with their arms and legs extending into the water. While riders of boogie boards routinely use their arms and legs to propel, maneuver and “steer” the board, the primary goal is to position the board in a flow of water, such as a wave along a shoreline or the like, and ride the flow of water while on the board.
Accordingly, it is desirable for the board to easily engage and be driven by this flow of water while still allowing the rider to propel, maneuver and steer the board as needed.
To date, efforts to improve a personal water sports board's operability have had limited success. Some improvements have focused on improving the materials used to form the board. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,228 to Richardson et al. discloses forming a water sports board with a low density, high strength elongated core surrounded by an outer layer formed of soft resilient non-permeable material. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,051 to Messer discloses mounting a traction pad on top of a wakeboard to improve the engagement between the rider and board.
More recently, some inventors have attempted to modify the overall shape of the board in an effort to improve its operating characteristics. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,935,909 to Mann discloses a gliding board having a curved lower surface defining an anticlastic shape to resemble the shape of a saddle.
Despite these improvements, none is directed to improving a personal water sports board's ability to better engage a driving flow of water in which it is being operated.